Midwest Nature

Coming from the land of severe drought, it was refreshing to spend a few days in the humidity and rain in Iowa. While there we probably had around 2 inches of rain with thunderstorms that came and went.

At the Art Festival, we managed to eat our lunch during one of the downpours. H and I had a pretty good spot under the tent, but G was at the end of the tent and had a steady stream down her back. Yuck. She needed this guy with his two umbrellas protecting his wife while she ate.

I love looking at the thistles by the road.

Dramatic skies

Here is a little video of a cicada that got caught in the water at the Art Center. Listen to the sounds of the other 17-year cicadas in the background. I love that sound.

Coyote

Yesterday when I was driving along Oak Park Ave., I saw this coyote. Being as there was no traffic, I stopped and watched him for a bit. I thought he might be pretending to have a hurt paw, but then when I got out my camera to snap a video of him, it was clear to me that he had been in some sort of altercation from which he did not emerge completely intact. Notice not only the dangly paw, but also the blood on his back.

Two-Tank Touring

I seem to recall a column in a paper (LA Times?) recommending short road trips called One-Tank Touring. Having just returned from a short jaunt up California's central coast where we used up more than one tank of gas, but fewer than two, I preferred the alliterative title of this post to the more awkward One-and-a-Half Tank Touring.

Anyway.

Last Thanksgiving when we went to Death Valley National Park, I was all set to declare that we had been to every National Park in California. A little fact-checking led me to realize that we still needed to get to the Channel Islands, because going to the Visitor Center in Ventura does not count as having been in the park. (Pinnacles has recently been upgraded from National Monument to National Park status, and we have been there, so I am counting that in my list.)

Hoping for good weather, I booked our boat ride to Anacapa Island, the smallest and closest island of the chain. Although the morning started out a little foggy, as it is wont to do on the ocean, the sun soon broke free, and we enjoyed beautiful skies and warm weather for the day.

This is a view from the boat as we approached Anacapa. The boat ride takes about an hour. The arch rock is the signature landmark for the Channel Islands. 

Bird droppings could also be considered a signature landmark for the islands.

Here is the boat landing site. Once you disembark, you must climb 153 stairs to the top of the island. Once on top, it is fairly flat and easy to traverse the 2 miles of trails which loop around in a kind-of figure 8.

Western gulls rule the island. Right now they are scoping out their territories for nesting. 

My favorite ocean birds are brown pelicans. I love watching them fly in formation. These guys nest on the middle of the three islands of Anacapa and you can sit and watch them fly over in formation after formation as though you are sitting under an airport approach. Our guide told us they are nicknamed the Anacapa Air Force.

Here is a view from Inspiration Point. A perfect place for a little picnic. You must bring your own provisions and pack out all trash.

At the opposite end of the island from Inspiration Point is the last permanent lighthouse built on the West Coast - 1932.

Here is a lovely spot for viewing - Cathedral Cove.

The coreopsis are blooming all over the island now, giving the effect of a yellow carpet.

Death Valley, Day 2

Day two was heading north. I talked H into touring Scotty's Castle, and I had heard that Thanksgiving weekend was a pretty busy time in the park, and that it may take up to several hours before we could book a tour. It wasn't too busy, and we only had to wait 20 minutes to tour time, giving us enough time to peruse the small visitor center and visit the facilities before our hour-long tour.

Although it was somewhat interesting, and the grounds are lovely, it wasn't one of our highlights. I would take a second tour of Hearst Castle before I would return here for the underground tour.

Not far from Scotty's Castle is the Ubehebe Crater - formed 2,000 years ago in a large eruption. You can't really tell from this photo, but it is 600 feet deep and 1/2 mile across. You can also hike up higher to see smaller craters, and we made it up to one of those. 

If we had rented a jeep, we would have taken the time to drive out to The Racetrack, but it would be a good half-day journey or more, so perhaps we will go back to see it some other time. Check it out at this link.

I think my favorite walk was our last one through Mosaic Canyon. The rock formations are varied and quite beautiful. Check out my Flickr page (link on left) for a few more photos.

Death Valley National Park

Several years ago I thought it would be great to visit Death Valley National Park over Thanksgiving weekend. We are big fans of the NPS, but August, our big travel time, is the worst time to go to this desert. We waited too long to make reservations then, so this time I was on it early, and booked a little room in Panamint Springs on the far western edge of the park.

It doesn't take too long to get there from here - just about 4.5 hours, and we arrived a little too early to check in. The closest attraction is a little hike to Darwin Falls which requires a bit of rock scrambling over wet places, but at the end of the hike is this sweet little falls.

I think one can feel as though you've seen the best parts of the park if you spend two full days there. Of course, if you go when it is fall/winter, those days are short with the sun setting at 5. We spent the first day from the middle of the park heading south. 

The first thing we came to were the Mesquite Flat Dunes - and we took our time tromping through the sand and taking photos.

After a stop at the new visitor's center at Furnace Creek (with a lovely new movie to tell about the park), we headed to a popular overlook at Zabriskie Point, looking west over the valley.

We decided not to take the walk down into the canyon here, mostly because we did not want to hike back up.

Further down the road we took a little walk to the Natural Bridge through a narrow canyon.

The farthest south and the lowest point we reached is what people think about when someone mentions Death Valley - the Badwater Basin Salt Flats. It's the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

Heading north again, we took the one-way loop through Artist's Drive and saw the Artist's Palette - lovely-colored hills of pastels.

So, our understanding of the park is that there is plenty to see, but it also involves quite a bit of driving. Many of the places are accessible once you drive 2-3 miles on gravel roads, and then you walk for 1/2 mile or more. We did not take our usual 4-mile hike in the morning on this trip, but we did get to see many beautiful things.

Transit of Venus

I was so excited to find out that I would actually get to see the Transit of Venus yesterday.  I knew that I did not have the correct stuff to view the rare event, but, of course, Harvey Mudd College was right on it.

The college had a little party set up with a tent and refreshments, solar viewing glasses, telescopes and plenty of science nerds.  Someone was taking time lapse photos, and I believe they will appear on the HMC website in the near future.  Here is a link to some cool photos.

The easiest way to watch the transit

The transit inspired a smooch

Viewers

The telescope and camera section

My pathetic attempt at photography with a point-and-shoot

Eclipse Photos

We were at book club yesterday evening during the solar eclipse, and here are two shots of the shadowy effects on the back wall of the house through the leaves.

Wednesday in the Water-Wise Garden

In the second installment of a tour through some of my favorite draught-tolerant, native plants in our garden, we feature the mimulus brevipes.  As a child I was delighted by snapdragons, the way you could snap open the petals like a jaw.  This monkeyflower reminds me of the snapdragon, so it became an instant favorite of mine when I first encountered it in Southern California.  We used to have mimulus cardinales in our front yard, the red variety which is harder to find, but it was taken over by the ornamental grasses awhile ago. So now we have the more common yellow variety in our back yard.

Mimulus in our yard

Seasonal Haiku

Lighter Later!

Tonight it was still a little light at 6 p.m.  I love it when the days are getting longer!

Snowy Mountains Today

I shamelessly stole this from one of my Facebook friends today.  The mountains have snow, the sky has puffy white clouds, and the air feels clear today.  It's good to live in So Cal - especially in February!

Thanks DM M for this photo!

Hummingbird

For the past week or so when I open up the curtains in the morning from my study, I see this little hummingbird sitting on the wire next door - sun or clouds.  Today we had beautiful clouds in our early  morning.

Suburban Wildlife

Last night while walking to my concert (we played Finlandia, Mathis der Maler by Hindemith, and Haydn's Harmonie Mass), I heard a great horned owl in one of the eucalyptus trees along College Ave. Then I heard another one answer back. We used to hear owls around here, but I hadn't heard any in quite a while, so it was good to hear them again.

Falling Leaves

It's the time of year when the ash trees on our street start losing their leaves. Lots and lots of little leaves turned yellow. Yesterday morning I raked and filled our green waste dumpster nearly full. Of course, today it hardly looks as though I did anything yesterday. There are enough leaves in the street that when cars drive by, it sounds as though it's raining.

I will be raking leaves now for at least another month, maybe 6 weeks.

When Liesl was 11, we sat on the front porch and watched these leaves falling on a sunny day, and she wrote this poem:

Journey

I am a leaf.

I am falling.

Twisting and turning,

As I drift downward.

I seek

A nice spot,

A spot to land.

Right here.

Safe and sound.

In a child's hand.

Ken Burns

Hal and I have been enjoying Ken Burns' newest documentary on PBS - The National Parks: America's Best Idea. I had to miss most of Monday's episode (I had orchestra rehearsal), but I just discovered that it not only is already on Netflix, but it is there for the viewing on the PBS website.

The photography is stunning, the information interesting. I am amazed at how many National Parks I've already visited (23!), but there are still more I want to see. Still on my "get to" list are: Glacier, Arches, Olympia, Canyon de Chelly, Hawaii Volcanoes, Great Basin, Death Valley, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Great Smoky Mountains, and I'm sure there are more.

Neighborhood Excitement

A little bit ago, Hal called me to come look at a hawk that was on a car on our street. It was obviously hurt or sick since it didn't fly away, even though several of the neighbors stood around and talked about what to do. Mikal called several friends and one came by and said she'd take it to the vet that helps such cases. Mikal got a blanket, and I got a box to donate to the cause, and now the neighborhood drama is over.

This morning I met with my school principal to talk about my working at Vista next year. He has found some money to pay me to be the music teacher for about 7-8 hours/week, but first I had to officially resign as librarian. I wrote the letter and filled out the paperwork which I'll turn in tomorrow. I am excited that they want me for afternoons which will free up my mornings for exercising and composing music!

Next week I meet with the district people to plan the strings, and perhaps recorder, program for next year. All music, all the time!